Server Environment

WiredTree is one of the foremost proponents of LiteSpeed Web Server. "It is always something we recommend as an option before upgrading their VPS plan or adding better hardware to their dedicated server," Joe, VP of Customer Service at WiredTree says. "We try not to upsell anything, but, when we do, LSWS is on the list once we have exhausted other options (tuning Apache, Linux, mySQL, etc.). If we have a customer who seems to be outgrowing their current hosting plan, we say to them, 'Let's try LiteSpeed.' It doesn't work in all situations, but it helps a lot of customers who might otherwise have to upgrade or pay for costly site code optimization services."

When the owners of eTeknix.com switched their hosting to WireTree, the sysadmin in charge of their account thought they'd be perfect for LiteSpeed. For the most part, their Apache 2.2.25 setup handled the traffic to their WordPress site, but when there was a surge in traffic, they would see load spikes up to 50, page load time became interminable, and occasionally the server crashed.

WiredTree discussed with them participating in this case study and both sides agreed to leave Apache in for a week or so to establish a baseline. After a particularly bad load spike, though, the switch just couldn't be put off any longer.

WiredTree installs LiteSpeed's WHM plugin on all WHM servers so, within minutes of receiving communication from eTeknix.com, LiteSpeed Web Server was installed and ready to go. The load immediately came down, and, more importantly, it stayed down. Not only are eTeknix.com's pages almost 4x faster — an average page load time of 238ms before LSWS vs. 67ms after LSWS — they have consistent speed. Gone are the huge spikes in page load time that came with an overloaded server (see graphs at right).

WiredTree uses LiteSpeed Web Server to give their VPS and dedicated server customers a cost-effective solution to overloaded servers. Instead of continually throwing more and more hardware at the problem, switching to LiteSpeed Web Server cuts out the source of the problem — Apache's inefficient architecture. Switching takes only minutes and pages stay consistently fast.